


Preventative Measures

by kittyyzma



Category: Pitch (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, I'm trash for them, surprise surprise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-07
Updated: 2016-10-07
Packaged: 2018-08-20 00:46:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8230412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittyyzma/pseuds/kittyyzma
Summary: Mike really shouldn't like her and he knows it. He's going to do something about it. And he'll regret it later





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm trash for these two. Because I'm lazy to update my fic page on my tumblr, I'm posting this here so it's not lost forever. Lol

  
“I heard someone had a little moment in the locker room today…” Ginny started, sipping a beer as she stood at the bar.

Mike looked over his shoulder, chuckling when he saw her teasing smile. “What, no other talk shows asking for you?” He asked her, ignoring her original comment.

“Shut up.” Ginny huffed, sliding onto a bar stool. “As for the talk shows. God no.” She pushed against the counter, turning to face him as his eyes followed a pair of women walking past them. Ginny rolled her eyes, but couldn’t hide the smile of amusement on her face. She smacked her lips before taking another swig from her beer and set the green bottle on the counter. “I’m a ball player, remember?”

“Mmm…” Mike’s lips formed a thin line as he tilted his head to the side, pretending to be pondering her response.

She dragged her eyes over him, taking him all in. She felt her cheeks warm as she stared at him. When she became that attracted to Mike Lawson, she didn’t know but she had no shame in checking him out. She was unapologetic really, and yet, when he glanced at her, she looked away first. Slowly she turned back to face the counter, looking down at the dark wood and scratching her nail into it.

She’d always admired him, he was her favorite baseball player. And he was just as talented and commanding as she’d ever thought he was. But there was more to him than that. He was apparently divorced, and had to work out twice as much as everyone else but not harder than her. And he couldn’t keep up with her in the training room — though it was fun to watch him try — and he had an affinity for loudly chewing gum. He glared at team members but rarely snapped. He had bad knees from years of playing, though, she wasn’t supposed to know that.

From the moment they met, she’d quietly entertained the thought of knowing him outside of baseball — she had been entertaining the thought of life itself outside of baseball for quite some time. And when Evelyn had bombarded her night of wallowing in her own self pity, to have girl talk, it was apparent that her thoughts of the Padres captain had very little to do with the game of baseball.

Before he could say anything, she spoke again, “Thank you.”

He looked at her then — like really looked at her — his expression showing how stunned he truly was. There weren’t many people who could say that they’d ever stumped Mike Lawson. His ex-wife Rachel, however… she could say she’d done much worse.

He cleared his throat, smirking as he thought back the first game they played together, “It’s about time you thank me…they don’t pay me enough to run after your wild pitches.”

She snorted, having known he was going to try and steer away from a serious conversation. From what she’d gathered about him, if a serious conversation was to be had, Mike had to be the one to start it. He didn’t like to be in the passenger’s seat. He was predictable in that sense, like every other man she’d know through the sport of baseball. Her theory had been proven right when they’d worked out together and he so cutely struggled to keep up with her yet tried to one up her every chance he got.

She appreciated those workouts more than she’d even considered before. And when Blip told her that he called out the whole team for ostracizing her and slacking off, she couldn’t hold back on thanking him.

“Okay, first off, that was one game. And second, I wasn't—”

“It was nothing.” He cut her off — something he knew she hated but did anyway simply because he tended to do things and then think when it was too late. He could be impulsive, which made sitting next to her at that bar in the hotel lounge dangerous.

Ginny looked at him with a weird look he’d noticed before. It sent an even weirder feeling down the back of his spine. Mike internally groaned at himself — 36 years old and he couldn’t find a word for the feeling pooling in the pit of his stomach or the glint in her dark eyes. But worse than that… he’d known the woman sitting beside him, the cause of it all, for 2 weeks. And he was slowly becoming enamored by her… it had to be some sort of record.

“Blip said it was quite the speech.” Ginny continued, bringing their staring contest to an end. She was good at that — pulling away — and it just forced him to think that he was projecting whatever was happening onto her and he was just making it all up in his head.

Mike snorted, knocking back the rest of his beer. Of course his first thought was that he was crazy, that he was making it all up. The ex wife cheated and then suddenly he’s the paranoid one.. and a little bit of a whore. That’s usually how it goes though. So maybe it was a mix of those two things that made him argue with himself on the sincerity of his feelings toward Ginny. Could he even consider it feelings after two weeks?  
He looked at the bartender and rapped his knuckles on the counter. Within seconds, another beer was in his hand. Ginny watched the whole exchange with a brow raised and her lips quirked to the side to hide whatever emotion she didn’t want him to see.

“It was, you missed it. I’m sure you’d have enjoyed watching me go nuclear.”

“That bad?” She asked, and he could hear the guilt in her tone. He sighed heavily. Whether she wanted to say it to him or not, he knew she had a rough week filled with stress and blamed herself for it.

“Movie worthy.” He shrugged, smiling as he looked down and locked his fingers together around the bottle in his hands.

 

“ _Oooh_! I love this song!” Ginny’s voice cut through the cluttered sounds of the lounge. She slapped her hands on the low table as she stood up. “Who’s gonna dance with me?”

There was the invitation, sitting there between them all and the first person to move was Stubbs. He stumbled over what Mike was sure would have been poorly selected words, and disappeared to the dance floor, their other teammates followed after him. But Ginny stood there, a questioning look directed at him. He didn’t know if he wanted to smile at her or roll his eyes.

She’d been looking at him the entire time, and he’d stared right back. She was daring him to accept the dance before she’d even asked. “Lawson?” she beckoned him with a small smile.  
It took him all of two seconds to wave her off — which considering the amount of beer he’d consumed in the last hour they’d been there — he was doing her a favor. Ginny’s eyes narrowed for a second and he knew that she was wondering why he’d said no, he even expected an old man joke. But she shrugged and turned away. Her half hearted whatever made his smirk widen. His gaze followed her figure as she walked away.  
Blip stayed put, and Mike could feel the hole being stared into the side of his temple.

He watched her dance while trying to figure out why he listened to the little voice in his head that told him to turn her down. But he knew why — the logical reason was there — he wouldn’t go down that road. The tension between them had been building since their first meeting. Every time she looked at him, it was like she was daring him to bring it up just so she wouldn’t have to. However, he wasn’t going to.

They were in a good place and after the week of addressing Al’s comments — and the obscene amount of attention Ginny had been getting — he wasn’t going to add their sexual tension to the heep. He didn’t want to admit why he was suddenly so keen to following the rules. But she wasn’t someone he could just hook up with and never see again — that wouldn’t be an option ever — she was a teammate, and someone he’d come to respect in the short time he’d known her. But… They were treading a line, they both knew it. And after the little chat they’d had earlier at the bar — without addressing the searing look he’d given her in the dugout after firmly slapping his hand to her butt and the grin that ran across her face when he’d done it — he wouldn’t be doing their working relationship any favors if he’d gotten up to dance. Because one touch of her body to his and… Just, there would be no winners in that situation. And besides all the obvious reasons he had to stay seated, his knees were killing him.

“Sooooo.” Blip started awkwardly. He had been watching his friend turnover his thoughts and it only took him a brief moment to figure out that Mike had Ginny swimming around in his head. He followed Mike’s gaze to the dance floor where Ginny was laughing at Stubbs offbeat dancing.

  
“No.” Mike shook his head. They weren’t going to get back into any sort of talk. He was sorting his thoughts on his own.

“Whatchu mean _no_?” He asked, knowing fully well that whatever it was, Mike was going to keep it to himself no matter what.

Blip was a smart man, he knew whatever he said, Mike would take to heart. They’d been friends since he’d been called up from the minors, there wasn’t a thing about Mike Lawson that Blip Sanders didn’t know. And they’d talked briefly about what had happened when Mike went to the house he once shared with his ex, Rachel. But after the blow up the Padres captain had in the locker room before the game, Sanders knew it was bothering him a lot more than he’d like to share. But Blip could see that things were bothering him — the way he was staring at the carefree woman on the dance floor hadn’t gone unnoticed to his best friend — and he couldn’t let Mike wallow in his self pity much longer before he would start to wilt.

“Something’s going on with you.” Blip pressed, setting his empty beer bottle on the table. The leather of the white couch they sat on creaked as he sat back.

Mike chuckled bitterly, thinking to himself that if he started listing the things he had to complain about, they’d be there all night. “I’m gonna get outta here.” Mike set him half empty beer bottle on the table. He felt around his pockets for his wallet with one hand while using the other to slap hands with Blip.

“Alright.”

Mike stifled a groan as he got up from the ridiculous, white leather couch and moved out of the section of the lounge. His eyes found Ginny again as he ascended the stairs and pushed through people.

She twirled and she laughed, her hips swiveling as she held her arms above her head. She rocked to the sound of the music and his step faltered. He smiled as she turned to face him, but he kept walking, ignoring that she was inviting him to join her. He played with the idea for a split second before logic won out.

Ginny’s eyes narrowed slightly. They held gazes as he walked through the door.

He found himself standing in the lobby of the hotel, fighting the urge to go back where Ginny was. He silently wondered what the hell was wrong with him. The feelings he had for her were premature at best. And on top of that, the rejection he was feeling from his last talk with Rachel had left him all sorts of confused.  
That’s what he was experiencing. He was just confused. And lonely. And mad… with a large pinch of tired thrown in the mix.

There was no way he could possibly care for the new pitcher outside of the game of baseball. He respected her, maybe he even enjoyed her company, but there was no scenario where they could be more than teammates and work out.

  
No, Ginny Baker didn’t make him feel anything.

  
But, there was no denying what he really wanted to do. And it was to turn around and go back to where she was. It was one dance. But it would have been more and he knew that too. He was probably overreacting, which would surprise everyone except for maybe Blip.

He needed to stop. And he was about to put one very big preventive measure in play. Another woman.

And then he was walking, moving in the opposite direction toward Ginny’s agent. He didn’t even know her name. And yet, he pulled out the chair at the counter she was sitting and staring at her laptop while nursing a glass of wine. He didn’t speak. She knew who he was. And from the moment he sat down, they both knew what followed. There was no need for words. Which is exactly what he needed considering he was tired of talking.

_This is a very bad idea._

 

Following after him was probably a bad idea but Ginny had done it anyway. Maybe she read the situation the wrong way and she was expecting something she shouldn’t have been. But she went.  
Awkwardly pulling the cuff of her long sleeve shirt, she looked around the lobby of the hotel, looking for him. She ignored people who recognized her — she was way over acknowledging everyone who knew who she was — and continued to scan the room. As people cleared out of the way, she saw him.

She stupidly took a step forward and then another, and another, the smile on her face creeping wider until she finally saw his hand on the small of Amelia’s back. The situation was clear as day, and the plummeting of disappointment in her stomach was apparent.

And then she was backing away back around the corner as he seemed to want to say something. She couldn’t even tell if her agent had noticed her — there was still substantial space between where they had been and where she was standing. And before she could make a bigger fool of herself, she was turning on her heel, moving back in the direction of the hotel lounge. She held her head high despite the feeling of dread creeping over her entire body. He didn’t call out to her and she wouldn’t have turned around even if he had.


End file.
